Tommy Oliver Must Die
by do i need a pen name
Summary: After Operation Overdrive, Adam invites some of the newer rangers to Angel Grove to meet some originals. While there, Tommy's tenure as the black Dino Thunder ranger is brought up...Formerly titled "The Greatest Ranger Ever" COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

**The Greatest Ranger Ever**

**Chapter One**

"Can you remind me again why you were the one out of the four of us to be picked to replace the Operation Overdrive rangers?" Conner asked from the backseat of Kira's car. "I mean, you're awesome and all that, Kira, but does that Sentinel Knight guy have any idea how boring life is when it's the off-season for soccer?"

"Obviously he just doesn't care about you, Conner." Ethan replied in a reasonable tone from his spot next to Conner.

"Why was it we decided to bring these two with us, again?" Kira asked her boyfriend, who was sitting in the front passenger seat next to her. The former yellow ranger sounded very much as if was currently questioning her sanity.

"Because you know you're too nice not to tell them that Adam told you that you could bring your teammates with you when he invited you to visit him in Angel Grove." Trent replied reasonably, his voice rising as he spoke so he could be heard over the noise that Conner and Ethan were making as they argued over who was the most popular Dino Thunder ranger. "Besides, you know that they'll know that they owe you big time after you introduce them to some of the original power rangers."

"Oh, they already owe me." Kira replied darkly.

"Hey, look—five more miles to Angel Grove." Trent said suddenly, pointing at the sign bearing that exact message just as the car passed it, and also successfully distracting the three other former superheroes in the car.

"Which former rangers are going to be there exactly, Kira?" Conner asked, suddenly nervous.

Kira rolled her eyes at him through the rearview mirror. Those former rangers were normal people, just like them.

"Not Dr. O." Ethan replied for her. "He just left for that dig yesterday and he won't be back for another month, at least."

"Definitely Adam will be there." Kira said. "Seeing as it's his house and he invited us. And that means he'll probably have Alpha there, too."

"Didn't you say that Adam married the yellow Zeo ranger—Tanya?" Conner interrupted.

"Yeah, but she's on tour now." Kira responded, fondly remembering back to when she first discovered that her idol in the music industry was in a fact a former power ranger, just like her. "So she won't be there. I'm pretty sure that Jason, the original red ranger, still lives in Angel Grove. And Rocky, too. But you'll just have to wait until we get to Adam's place to find out for sure."

Twenty minutes later, Kira pulled to a stop in front of a pretty average-looking house in one of Angel Grove's residential areas.

"Well, this is it, guys." She announced, after double-checking the number on the house with the address she had written down.

She had no sooner said this than Conner had burst out of the car and—over-anxious to meet the original red ranger—tripped over his own feet as he attempted to run to the front door.

"Someone's excited." Ethan muttered and Trent laughed as he took Kira's hand.

Once they were at the front door, Kira hesitated with her arm outstretched towards the doorbell and turned to look at Conner standing behind her.

"Do me a favor, McKnight," She began, "Don't make a fool out of yourself while we're here."

And she pressed down firmly on the button, resolutely ignoring the former red ranger's protests that he had never made a fool of himself in his entire life. His protests were cut short, however, when the door was suddenly pulled open to reveal a young man in green.

"Xander!" Kira exclaimed, surprised. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"Got a call from Adam." Xander replied with a wide smile. "He said you'd be here, so I decided to stop by and catch up on things."

Kira grinned back, releasing Trent's hand and throwing her arms around Xander's neck. "It's great to see you again!"

Trent cleared his throat after a couple of seconds and nodded meaningfully towards Xander once Kira had stepped back.

"Care to introduce us?" He asked his girlfriend.

"Oh yeah, this is Xander, everyone. He was the green Mystic Force ranger." Kira said. "And Xander, meet Ethan, Conner, and Trent. Blue, red, and white. Xander and I met when we were both helping out Operation Overdrive."

"And how did your teammates feel about that, Xander?" Conner asked suddenly. "Did it make them feel neglected and ignored when the Sentinel Knight chose to reactivate _your_ powers instead of theirs?"

"Um…no?" Xander replied, unconsciously taking a step back. "But you could ask Nick or Madison, if you want; they came with me today. Nick was our red ranger and Madison was blue."

"Oh, I will." Conner replied.

"Don't mind him." Kira told Xander softly. "It's a bit of a touchy subject for Conner that he didn't get his powers back."

"Yes…I can see that." Xander replied, still eyeing Conner, who had begun muttering to himself, uncertainly.

"Wait a minute," Kira began suddenly. "Did you just say that Nick and Madison came with you today? As in, like, _Nick_ and _Madison_?"

Xander nodded solemnly.

"I'm so sorry for you, Xander." Kira told him, patting his arm consolingly. "I thought I had it bad with Ethan and Conner, but obviously, it was nothing compared to what you had to go through."

"And it was a longer car ride for me." Xander said. "I think I might have to buy a new car." He shook his head suddenly, as if trying to rid himself of a slightly horrifying memory, then smiled brightly at Kira again. "But come on, everyone's waiting to meet all of you."

**a/n (One Year Later)-Just so you know, after completing this story, I posted a prequel to it entitled Xander Bly Wants to Die that details Xander's horiffic experience of driving to Adam's house with only Madison and Nick for company.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Xander led Kira, Trent, Ethan, and Conner all the way through Adam's house and out into the backyard. There was a group of seven people sitting around a table on the patio; they all turned to look when the five multi-colored young adults entered the backyard.

"I thought you might have gotten lost coming from the front door, Xander." A man in black said, standing up as he spoke. "That took a while."

"Adam!" Kira exclaimed, walking over and giving him a hug. "It's so good to see you again!"

"Hey Kira." Adam replied, hugging her back in return. "I take it these are the other newbies?"

Kira rolled her eyes at him. "It's been a few years and a couple teams, we're hardly newbies anymore." Then she smiled. "But yeah, these are my teammates: Conner, Ethan, and Trent. I'm sure it's obvious what each of their colors were."

"Once a ranger, always a ranger." Adam said, shaking hands with each of the three guys. Trent and Ethan kept their cool, but Conner's eyes had gone wide with shock, meaning he was also probably incapable of speech at the current moment. Adam gestured to the table a few feet behind him. "Come meet everyone else."

Adam turned around and Kira, Trent, Ethan, and Conner all took a few steps forward so that they were standing beside him, while Xander went and sat down in the empty chair next to a guy his age, dressed in red.

"Everyone, meet Kira, Trent, Ethan, and Conner, the Dino Thunder rangers. They've been retired for about three years now." Adam said. "And that's Jason, original Mighty Morphin red; Zack, original Mighty Morphin black; Rocky, second Mighty Morphin red and blue zeo; Andros, Space red; Nick, Mystic force red; Madison, Mystic force blue; and you've already met Xander. Trini and Billy, the original yellow and blue Mighty Morphin rangers, are inside with Alpha."

"Is there something wrong with Alpha?" Kira asked, concerned.

"No, he just thinks the sun is bad for his circuitry." Adam said with a wave of his hand. "So Billy and Trini are keeping him and the computer company."

At the word 'computer' Ethan instantly turned to look at Adam and Kira, and gave Kira a wide-eyed, pleading look. Kira sighed, as if greatly troubled.

"Just go." Kira told him. "And try not to do anything illegal."

"Pleasure to meet you, Adam, everyone else." Ethan said with a wide grin and a wave. "See you later!"

And without another word, Ethan made his way back into the house, in search of the original blue ranger, the robot, and the computer.

"You owe me five bucks." Jason informed Rocky, as soon as Ethan had disappeared and the three remaining Dino rangers were sitting down. "Pay up."

"But Adam cheated." Rocky said, even as he pulled out his wallet. "It's unfair to use the phrase 'original ranger' in any conversation involving any of the newer rangers, and you of all people should know that."

"The fact that I am the original red ranger has nothing to do with this." Jason replied, slipping the money Rocky handed him into his pocket.

"What are they talking about?" Kira muttered to Madison, whom she had just sat down next to.

"Jason bet Rocky that your blue would go back inside to find Billy and Alpha within the first five minutes after you all got out here. If you had gone with to find Trini, it would've been ten bucks." Madison replied, rolling her eyes. "You have no idea how many times Jason mentioned Billy within the first five minutes that we got here. I'm Madison, by the way. Although I'm sure you've figured that out by now."

"I'm Kira." Kira replied. "So, who do we like better, Jason or Rocky?"

"Well, Jason does seem to have the upper hand right now, so I'd go with Rocky." Madison said. "Why?"

Kira glanced at her watch. "Give me five more minutes, then we can go introduce ourselves to Trini and Billy." Kira told the other girl. "And while we're at it, we can check out Adam's music collection. It's much too quiet out here."

"I agree." Madison replied. "So, now that you've been introduced to everyone, I've got to ask you're opinion on something, because Nick's in too much awe to think it's weird. Have you noticed how many former red rangers are here right now?"

"This is nothing." Andros, who was sitting across from the two female rangers, said suddenly, before Kira could reply. "Sorry, I couldn't help overhearing." He apologized, when they both turned to look at him. "But this really is nothing compared to The Incident a few years ago."

"'The Incident?'" Kira questioned skeptically. "What's that?"

"Ah…The Incident…" Jason spoke up now, from down the table. "Those were the days, possibly the best of my life."

"Yeah, and you were the one who almost didn't show up." Andros retorted. He turned back to Kira and Madison, but now had the attention of the entire group. "About eight years ago, now, all of the red rangers, plus the quantum ranger from Time Force, teamed up to defeat some of the Machine Empire's generals on the moon. Ten former and current red power rangers in one place at the same time; it was big."

"Big on excluding certain people, he means." Rocky stated. "Such as myself; the only former red ranger not to get an invite. It hurt."

"Don't tell me you're still upset about that." Jason said. "It was Tommy's fault, anyway. He's the one who supposedly called everyone."

At the mention of Tommy's name, all of the older rangers seemed to sit up a bit straighter and a business-like feel came over their half of the group. Both Kira and Madison noticed it, but chose not to comment. Instead Kira surreptitiously looked down at her watch and saw that it had been almost twenty minutes since they had first arrived at Adam's house.

"Well," She said aloud, to the whole group, "It's awfully quiet in the house; I think I'll go check up on Ethan."

Madison stood up when Kira did. "I think I'll go with you."

Rocky checked the time on his watch once the two women had disappeared into the house. "It's been more than five minutes, pay up, Jason."

Jason reached into his pocket and pulled out the money he had previously won off of Rocky, and gave it back to him. Then, he placed his hands on the surface before him and stood up at his place at the table's head.

"I've been waiting for them to leave since they got here." He stated. "I would now like to call the fourth meeting of the Official Tommy Oliver Must Die Group to order."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

At Jason's seemingly random announcement, Trent, Conner, Xander, and Nick all looked at each other in confusion, then looked at the older former rangers, who all looked just as serious as Jason. What was going on?

"The first item on our agenda is to welcome our new members." Jason continued, without pause. He turned to his left, where the four newer and younger rangers were all sitting. "Welcome to the Official Tommy Oliver Must Die Group. We're so glad you could make it today and we hope you had a good commute."

"Um…what's going on?" Nick asked. "What's all this about killing this Tommy Oliver guy? And who _is_ Tommy Oliver?"

"Ah, yes, perhaps we should start at the beginning." Jason said. "Tommy Oliver is quite famous among power rangers, it's a miracle that you've never heard of him. Of course, only the innermost groups among us rangers know what kind of a criminal he _really_ is."

"You _are_ talking about Dr. O, aren't you?" Trent clarified, looking confused.

"The very same." Jason replied, then continued for Nick and Xander's benefit, "Tommy Oliver was the original green power ranger, back in the beginning. He then became the first white power ranger, and when Mighty Morphin went Zeo, he became the red ranger, and later the red Turbo. More recently, he was the black Dino Thunder ranger, and also Trent and Conner here's science teacher and ranger mentor. Our sources tell us that in the future he will be called the Greatest Ranger Ever, but that's disputable. Personally, I think they should call him the Rainbow Ranger."

"So you want to kill Dr. O because you're jealous of him?" Conner asked, looking confused and no longer in awe of the former legends sitting across from him.

"Jealous?" Zack repeated slowly, making Conner fear for his own life more than that of his high school science teacher.

"You see, this is the problem with all of you new kids." Jason said with a sigh. "You just don't have the past that allows the rest of us to easily understand everything. I'm going to have to go through the entire history of the Official Tommy Oliver Must Die Group in order for you four to understand everything. I knew I should have made copies of the minutes from all of our meetings."

"Do you really have to call it the 'Official Tommy Oliver Must Die Group' every single time you mention it?" Xander asked. "That's awfully violent."

Jason ignored him. "The Official Tommy Oliver Must Die Group was originally founded by myself and Rocky during my tenure as the gold Zeo ranger."

"Wait, you were the gold Zeo ranger?" Nick interrupted. "I thought you were the red Mighty Morphin ranger?"

"I knew I was forgetting something when I introduced all of you." Adam said. "And I was on Zeo; how do I always forget that?"

"Moving on," Jason said, "We felt that it was unfair that not only was Tommy on his third color by now, but it was a color that had originally been _ours_. Therefore, we decided that Tommy Oliver Must Die. Unfortunately, there was the problem of the Machine Empire on hand, so we thought it would be best for his death to occur at a later point in time. Our second meeting wasn't held for quite a while after that as a result. Coincidentally, it was after The Incident, which Rocky was not present for, but several other red rangers were. We conferenced Rocky in for that meeting, and it was discovered that there was now another reason that Tommy Oliver Must Die, because he hadn't called Rocky to take part in the Mission to the Moon. Our third meeting was the best."

"I liked that one, too." Rocky said. "It really was quite a refreshing week."

"Your last meeting lasted for an entire week?" Trent asked, looking quite alarmed.

"We had to go over some extensive footage of all of the Dino Thunder battles." Andros told him.

"It took forever to go through all of it." Jason said. "And after we got through it, we discovered that Tommy Oliver had committed another atrocity for which he Must Die. Of course, then Zack and Adam were able to join the Group, so that made it just a bit worth it. And so here we are now, at the fourth meeting of the Tommy Oliver Must Die Group. We've wanted to meet again for a while now, but we figured it was about time we added some new members, and we couldn't figure out how to get a hold of any of you new kids. But then, Adam went and pulled a Tommy Oliver and got his powers back and he met Xander and Kira."

"I 'pulled a Tommy Oliver?'" Adam repeated slowly. "How could I have 'pulled a Tommy Oliver' when it was _my_ powers that were reactivated? It's not like I went and joined a new team of teenagers and got myself some new powers. You were closer to pulling a Tommy Oliver when you become the gold ranger, Jason."

"Hmm…point taken." Jason said. "We'll strike that accusation from the records."

"Can I ask a question?" Nick asked.

"Well, you just did." Zack pointed out. "But feel free to ask another one, if you like."

"What exactly qualifies a person for membership in the Tommy Oliver Must Die Group?" Nick questioned. "And is membership voluntary, or am I going to be forced to be a member of this group for the rest of my life?"

"Any current, former, or future power ranger who is any of Tommy's four colors is automatically a member of the Group, even if they don't know it. Originally it was just those of us who were red rangers, as that was technically the first color Tommy had that wasn't original. But after he went black and there had been several more teams, we thought we'd extend membership to white and green as well." Rocky replied. "So, really, there are quite a lot of people in the Group. I think we should aim to have everyone attend our next meeting."

"I'm still missing the point here, I think." Trent stated. "Why, exactly, does being a green, white, red, or black ranger qualify you for membership in this group? And why does Dr. O have to die?"

"He doesn't _have_ to die." Zack informed Trent. "He Must Die."

Jason was frowning. "You guys really aren't getting this, are you?" As one, Trent, Conner, Nick, and Xander all shook their heads. "I'm going to try to explain this to you one more time, so listen up. Tommy Oliver, former green, white, red, and black ranger, is a criminal to some of us in the ranger world. This group was founded to punish Tommy for his criminal activity."

"Which was…?" Conner asked.

"Tommy Oliver committed one of the worst crimes known to mankind." Jason paused for effect. "He _stole_ our colors. Which brings us to the second item on our agenda: revenge."


	4. Chapter 4

**a/n-So, I've just realized that this is my first author's note in this entire story. I hope you like it so far! As you might have noticed, I changed the title. In the past two and a half weeks, when I probably should have been writing this chapter, I instead wrote the epilogue and decided that the current title is more fitting. And you shall see why at the end of this story. Just one more chapter and then the epilogue...enjoy!**

**Chapter Four**

"Whose idea was it to put Jason in charge of these meetings, again?" Zack asked, when Jason finished speaking. "Because I'm pretty sure that revenge has been the only item ever on our agendas at these things."

"As the original red ranger here on Earth, Jason was the perfect candidate for the job. Also, he helped found the Group." Andros said. "Besides, you and Adam only came on Day 6 of our last meeting, when we had already discussed everything _but_ revenge."

"Why can't _I_ be in charge?" Rocky demanded. "I'm the one who replaced Jason! And I helped him found this Group. _And_ I'm the only ever red ranger not to lead a team. I think that makes me pretty qualified."

"Not leading a team makes you qualified to lead our very important meetings?" Jason questioned, one eyebrow raised. "I'll pretend to understand that."

"Plus," Adam added in, "There's that whole thing with Time Force, and Wild Force, too, in the beginning. Time Force's pink ranger was totally in charge of that team, no matter what anyone else might say. And Wild Force didn't even _have_ a red ranger at first. So you aren't really as unique as you think, Rocky."

"Well, I served on three different teams with two different colors _and_ I've never led a team." Rocky stated, stopping himself just in time before adding 'so there' at the end of his sentence.

"Three?" Jason repeated. "No one ever counts Ninjetti, but if you're going to argue it like that, then you're going to have to look at Tommy's track record first. He's lead five different teams, and with four different colors. He would be the one in charge of this Group, then…if it weren't entirely devoted to his untimely demise. He's just shown way too much leadership in the ranger world."

"Except I was in charge of Dino Thunder, not Dr. O." A voice said softly, as if afraid to contradict the original red ranger.

"What?!" As one, the five older former rangers turned to stare at Conner; it was Rocky who had spoken.

"How did you guys not know that Dr. O wasn't in charge?" Trent asked. "I thought you said you watched extensive footage of all of our fights…"

"Well yeah…" Jason said, and now he, Rocky, and Andros all looked a bit uneasy. "But what do you honestly think a bunch of former rangers do when they get together?"

"Plot against their former teammate." Nick muttered under his breath.

"We tend to reminisce about our old days. Ah…those were the days…the glory days." Jason said, his gaze faraway for a moment before refocusing on the more recent rangers. "And sometimes…we might…maybe…do that while _slightly_ intoxicated."

"Slightly?" Andros questioned. "Our last meeting was the time that Eric called Taylor while drunk and proposed."

"I really did like that meeting." Rocky stated. "The Battle of Day Four was a nice stress reliever."

"What are you talking about?" Zack asked, looking confused. "What battle? No one ever mentioned anything about a battle taking place!"

"Oh…" Rocky trailed off, looking worried. "I wasn't supposed to mention that, was I?"

"No." Jason said, resisting the urge to hit his old friend over the head with something preferably very heavy and pain-inducing. "We all swore an oath not to mention the greatest battle in power ranger history ever again."

"If it was the greatest battle ever, why wouldn't you mention it?" Conner questioned. "That makes no sense."

"Mentioning it means admitting that it happened." Andros said, as if that was obvious. "By not mentioning it, no one will ever know that all of the yellow rangers teamed up and tried to kidnap Eric after he called Taylor."

"You mean after they _did_ kidnap Eric and we had to go _try_ to save him from them." Rocky corrected him. He faced the four newer rangers. "Trust me on this: never ever get on the bad side of a yellow. They can do terrible things to a person."

Xander and Nick glanced at each other and then turned back to face the rest of the group.

"Obviously you've never met our yellow." Nick informed them.

"Why? Is there hope for the world after all?" Jason asked. "Does she not sometimes have slightly homicidal tendencies?"

"Well, she's a he," Xander began, "And he's…well…full of childlike wonder, I guess you could say."

"The world is now complete." Rocky said, smiling in a satisfied way. "I never thought I'd see this day."

"The day when a guy was a yellow ranger, instead of some scary girl?" Conner questioned uncertainly. "Because you guys are really behind on your history, then: Ninja Storm's yellow was a guy, too."

"Well," Zack said with a shrug, "I guess that's what we get for not trying harder to get Tommy to share that video history with us."

"Ah, yes…" Jason said suddenly. "I trust it is Tommy Oliver that you are speaking of. Yes, that is just one more of many things he has done for which he must be punished. Thank you for getting us back on track, Zack." He looked at the group at large, now. "I'd like to hand the podium over to this meeting's guest speaker: Rocky DeSantos, whom I'm sure you are all familiar with," He announced, before sitting down just as Rocky stood up.

"Thank you, Jason. And welcome, fellow rangers." Rocky said, as if they hadn't all been sitting in Adam's backyard for the past hour already, talking.

Trent, Conner, Xander, and Nick all exchanged glances once more. If they hadn't thought it before, now they were all thinking that there was something strange going on in Angel Grove, especially in the area concerning former teenage superheroes. Hopefully it was nothing in the water, though, because they'd all been drinking it…

"As you may have gathered from today's discussions," Rocky continued, as he began to pace up and down the length of the table, behind Andros, Adam, and Zack, "We are here today to plot revenge against one Thomas Oliver. For more than ten years, he has been continuously stealing his fellow ranger's colors, and I am here today to tell you that our long sought after revenge is finally within our grasp. Since our last official meeting two years ago, a few of us have been meeting separately, attempting to hatch our ultimate revenge plot and, finally, it is finished!"


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

"Do you have any idea what they're talking about?" Kira asked softly, out of the corner of her mouth.

"No idea." Madison replied. "I only stayed because of the air conditioning."

After leaving the group of former rangers in the backyard and entering Adam's house, Kira and Madison had quickly found the office and the original bearers of their respective colors. Trini, as it turned out, was always happy to meet a fellow yellow ranger. And, after she and Kira had been talking for a good ten minutes, Trini promised to put Kira in touch with Tanya when she found out that the younger yellow was also a singer.

Billy, on the other hand, was overjoyed beyond belief to meet Madison. Apparently, he usually lived on a planet called Aquitar, but had decided to come back home to Earth for a visit. And, as he hadn't been around in recent years, he had never before met a female blue ranger. He found it all quite fascinating.

Now, however, the two older rangers had gone back to discussing with Ethan various ways of how to protect Alpha's circuitry from the California sun. Or, at least, that's what Kira and Madison _thought_ they were talking about. It was all getting a bit technical for them.

"Do you think it's time to eat yet?" Madison asked Kira. "When we got here, Adam said he was going to wait until everyone else arrived to start up the grill."

"It had better be time to eat." Kira replied. "I'm starving."

"Hey, guys," Madison said in a louder voice, now, catching Billy, Trini, and Ethan's attention. "Kira and I are going to go back outside and see if it's still too bright out for Alpha to go out without extra protection."

"Come back and tell us if the sun is going down!" Trini called after the two girls as they quickly exited the room.

"You know," Kira said, once they were out of earshot of the office, "You could have just told them that we were going to get something to eat."

"But I wanted to ditch them the nice way." Madison replied. "The not-so-obvious way."

Kira just rolled her eyes.

The pair quickly reached the sliding door that led out to the backyard. However, instead of opening the door and walking out, they chose to stay in the nice air conditioning a bit longer and just peek through the glass to see if the food was ready yet. When they did, they saw that Jason was standing at the head of the table and appeared to be speaking to the whole group.

"Guess it's a while still until we eat, then." Kira said.

"We _are_ in a kitchen right now." Madison pointed out, and then without further ado began opening cabinet after cabinet before finding an unopened bag of chips.

"You know what's kind of weird?" Kira asked, still looking out the glass door.

"What?" Madison asked, coming back over to her with the chips.

"You were right before: most of them _are_ red rangers." Kira nodded her head towards the group at the table.

"And there's two blacks, a green, and a white." Madison pointed out.

_Red…White…Green…Black._ Kira mouthed silently to herself. For some reason, she knew those four colors together should mean something to her. Then, as Jason sat down and Rocky stood up, her eyes widened in surprise.

"It's a group of green, white, red, and black rangers." Kira stated.

"Yeah…" Madison trailed off. "What about it?"

"Those are all of Dr. O's colors." Kira informed her.

"Who's Dr. O?" Madison asked, looking confused.

"He was our—Dino Thunder's science teacher, and our mentor. He also became the black Dino Thunder ranger." Kira replied. "But back when he was in high school, he was the original green ranger, and then the first white ranger. After that he was red Zeo and Turbo. And, except for Xander and Nick, everyone out there knows him." She nodded her head in the general direction of the backyard again. "Just look at them, they're planning something, can't you tell?"

Looking outside again, Madison had to admit that they did seem to be having a very animated discussion about something.

"But what would they be planning?" Madison asked.

"How should I know?" Kira replied. "They're all guys and former power rangers; that can't be a good mixture under any circumstances."

"Well," Madison said, looking determined, "There's only one way to find out. Come on."

Grabbing Kira's wrist, she slid the door open and dragged the older girl outside with her just in time to hear Andros finish speaking.

"…contact the Silver Guardians. They'll have the resources we need."

"It's settled then." Jason said, not noticing Kira and Madison standing there. "We begin two weeks from tomorrow at dawn."

"We begin two weeks from tomorrow at _noon_." Zack said firmly. "No way am I getting up that early for any reason."

"Hey guys!" Madison said brightly and, as one, all nine former rangers jumped at the sound of her voice and turned to face her, some of them with guilty expressions on their faces.

"Oh, hello, Madison." Adam said quickly, with a smile. "How are Billy, Trini, and Alpha doing?"

"They might come out later." Madison said. "Once the sun goes down a bit. What have all of you been up to?"

"Nothing." Jason said swiftly. A bit too swiftly. His eyes settled on the bag of chips in her hand. "I see you've brought some food. Adam, man, I thought this was supposed to be a barbecue—so where's all the food?"

"I'm on it." Adam jumped up from his seat and hurried inside.

Still suspicious that something was going on, Kira and Madison resumed their former seats at the table.

"So," Kira turned to Conner, "What's been going on out here? Find out anything interesting about your idols?"

"Nope." Conner replied quickly. "Nothing's been going on. Absolutely nothing at all."

Kira narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously, but he quickly turned away from her and engaged Rocky, who was sitting across from him, in conversation. Yes, there was no doubt about it now, in Kira's mind. They were all planning _something_. She wasn't sure what it was, and apparently none of them were going to talk now, but she was determined. She would find out what it was…someday…


	6. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Tommy sighed contentedly as he turned his Jeep into his driveway. His past month on an archeological dig in Europe, while interesting and rewarding, had felt like the longest of his life. But it was done, now, and he was home. He wanted nothing more right now than to collapse on his bed and sleep for a week.

Bringing the car to a halt, he turned the engine off, grabbed his bag out of the back seat and hopped out of his Jeep. After making his way to the front door and around the piles of newspapers he'd apparently forgotten to cancel, he fumbled with his keys for a second before managing to unlock the front door. He had only made it two steps inside the door, however, when he discovered that the rest of his path was obstructed.

"What the…"

Tommy's eyes widened in shock, taking in the sight before him. He was brought out of his momentary reverie when he dropped his bag in disbelief and there was a loud popping noise. What looked like his entire house was filled with hundreds upon hundreds of balloons.

Multi-colored balloons.

Some were filled with helium and floating upon the ceiling. Others appeared to have been blown up manually and were piled a foot high off the ground.

Still reeling with shock, Tommy waded through all of the balloons, kicking them to the side and trying to avoid the strings hanging from the balloons on the ceiling. Finally, he made his way into the kitchen, which was also infested with balloons. And there, lying on the table, was a piece of paper folded in half. His name was written on the front in unfamiliar handwriting. He picked it up and, unfolding it, saw the same unknown handwriting on the inside.

_Dear Tommy,_ it read,

_So sorry, but we couldn't find ribbons to match all of the balloons._

It looked like someone whose name began with an X had begun to sign it but, judging from the tear in the paper, someone had forcibly taken the paper away from that person and blacked out the signature. It had been replaced in different handwriting with what appeared to be an acronym of some sort:O.T.O.M.D.G.

Tommy looked at the note again in confusion. What was any of it supposed to mean? And why was his house full of balloons anyway?

Out of frustration, Tommy kicked the balloon nearest to him so hard that it was squished in between his foot and the wall, causing it to pop. Tommy was about to look away when he spotted a white piece of paper half-hidden among the pieces of demolished balloon. Stooping quickly, he snatched it up and discovered a computer-typed message upon it.

_You **will** be here._

Tommy stared at the small piece of paper for a solid minute, a feeling of trepidation rising in his stomach. Slowly, the hand clutching the note rose, so he could look again at the letters scrawled at the bottom of it, looking closer. He knew _that_ handwriting, he just _knew_ it. With the feeling of dread growing as the seconds passed, Tommy looked around at the balloons surrounding him.

Yellow, blue, pink, purple, silver, gold, orange…every shade imaginable of each of those colors.

Not a single green, white, red, or black balloon to be seen.

Jason.

Jason was responsible for this. Without a doubt it was Jason. No one else had a copy of the key to his house. No one else could possibly hold a grudge against him for all of the colors.

Could they?

Except, Jason must have had help. There was no way he could have managed all of this on his own. But who else could there be with any kind of vendetta against him? He hadn't had to fail any of his students at the end of the previous school year, so it wasn't likely to be any of them. In fact, the last student he remembered even contemplated failing for the entire year was a certain soccer player with a fondness for the color red…

Tommy's eyes went wide again as he had a sudden realization. He dropped both of the pieces of paper he was still holding and practically leapt across the room, kicking up many multi-colored balloons in the process. He yanked on the dinosaur skeleton and then practically fell down the steps into the lab.

His fall was cushioned by balloons.

They were in on it, too. He didn't know how many of them, or which ones, but some of the Dino rangers must have been in on it. Why did the world seem to hate him so much? What had he done to _deserve_ this?

And no, serving on multiple ranger teams with multiple different colors was _not_ the right answer.

Thoroughly dejected, Tommy made his way back up to the kitchen, where he noticed for the first time that the light on his answering machine was blinking. Crossing the room, he pushed the playback button on it and then collapsed onto a chair to listen. There were five messages from various organizations collecting money; one from Anton, asking how the dig went; one from Principal Randall, with the reminder that school started in less than a month; and three from his mother, whom he must have forgotten to tell that he was going out of the country. It was the very last message that caught his attention, however, as he was about to get out of his chair to find something to eat.

"_Hey Tommy_," Jason's voice rang out pleasantly. "_I just thought I'd call to see how your dig-thingy went. Dig up any interesting dinosaurs?_ There was a slight pause, as if Jason had expected Tommy to answer._ So, yeah, I don't really know when you're coming home. But I thought I'd let you know that I'm going out of town for a couple of days, in case you were thinking about stopping by, since, you know, we're friends and that's what friends do. Some of Adam's students are going to be in this big national competition, so Rocky, Zack, and I thought we'd go check it out and give Adam some moral support. It's been ages since any of us has gone to one of those things…and since we've all seen each other. If you get back in time, you should try and come, too. Although, seeing as we're leaving in five minutes and you wouldn't be here on time even if I'd told about it a week ago, you probably won't make it. Well, that's it, I guess. Call me sometime. Oh, yeah, and welcome home!"_

The answering machine beeped to signal the end of the message and Tommy contemplated throwing it out of the window. But no, the innocent telephone had no part in this, really; no need to harm the messenger.

Of course, after that message, Tommy thought he might know of a few more people who _had_ been coerced into breaking and entering his house. But now that he thought about it, how had Jason even known that he had gone on a dig? Yes, out of all of his old teammates, Jason was definitely the one he talked to the most, but Tommy had forgotten to tell his own mother that he was going on a dig. He knew for sure that he wouldn't have remembered to tell Jason that he was going, so how could he have known? In fact, the only person Tommy remembered telling that he was going out of town was Hayley…Hayley and the other Dino rangers, who had happened to be visiting Hayley at the café when Tommy had gone to tell her that he was leaving. If he had any doubt before about whether or not they had been involved in this, now Tommy knew for sure. Now he just had to figure out if anyone else had been in on it.

And then there was the matter of how exactly he was going to get rid of all of these balloons…

But sitting there, in his balloon-filled kitchen, there was definitely one thing of which Tommy Oliver was absolutely certain: Jason Scott Must Die.


End file.
